Eight players will earn spots in 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., August 20, 2015 – The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Teaching and Club Professionals (T&CP) will head to the Orlando area and Reunion Resort to play the 2015 LPGA T&CP National Championship from Aug. 24-26. The top-eight finishers will earn spots in the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club outside Seattle.

The 54-hole, stroke-play Championship will be held on The Palmer Course, Arnold Palmer’s signature course, boasting dramatic elevation changes and creating a unique variety of risk/reward shots, a collection of natural preserve areas, generously wide fairways and strategically placed bunkers across all 18 holes.

The LPGA T&CP National Championship was originally organized in 1983 to provide additional playing opportunities for LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals. The three-day competition has since grown to become recognized as the premier tournament for women golf professionals in the world. The tournament features three divisions: Championship (6,242 yards), Challenge (5,911) and Senior (50+, 5,577 yards). The field will be cut to the Top 70 and ties after 36-holes.

“We are very excited to bring this Championship to Reunion Resort,” said Nancy Henderson, Chief Teaching Officer of the Teaching and Club Professionals and President of the LPGA Foundation. “The resort is the perfect setting for the championship and the Palmer Course will provide unique challenges for our professionals, especially on the greens. Female members of the PGA of America will be competing side-by-side with our LPGA T&CP members for a share of the $100,000 purse and the opportunity to compete in the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.”

The top eight finishers in the Championship division will go on to represent the LPGA T&CP in the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, one of five major championships on the LPGA Tour. Defending champion, Jean Bartholomew, an LPGA Teaching Professional at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., will headline the field competing for the championship as well as one of the eight coveted exemptions. Bartholomew is competing for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Championship. Bartholomew won the Championship in 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

A number of LPGA T&CP members who reside in Florida will compete in this year’s Championship, including local favorite, LPGA Tour winner and Director of Golf Operations for the ANNIKA Academy, Charlotta Sorenstam. Other Floridians competing includes two-time LPGA Tour winner, Laurie Rinker of Stuart, Fla. and Sue Ginter of Jupiter, Fla.

Other notable players in the field include past T&CP National Championship winner Laura Shanahan Rowe of Hampton, N.H. All of the top-8 finishers from last year’s Championship return including PGA Club Professional Karen Paolozzi (Ga.), Alison Curdt (Calif.), Lisa Grimes (Minn.) and Liz Caron (Conn.).

In addition to the championship, family and friends have the opportunity to join in on the action by participating in the Titleist Pro-Am competition and the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf Clinic presented by Coca-Cola, which precedes the Championship.

Professionals, amateurs, and the general public will also have the opportunity to discover new products, test golf club equipment supplied by tournament sponsor-partners and meet with company representatives during the on-site Demo Days, Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 22-23, 2015.

Reunion Resort Set to Host 2015 LPGA T&CP National Championship

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